Chapter 36
Section 36 of Genetic Studies of Genius, Volume 2, The Early Mental Traits of 300 Geniuses, by Catherine Cox. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recorded by Leon Ivey. Chapter 23, Cases Rated AI IQ 190-200 John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873 A celebrated English philosophical writer, logician, and economist.
AIIQ 190, AIIQ 170 1. Family Standing Mill's paternal grandfather was a shoemaker. His father, James Mill, the utilitarian philosopher, author of a standard history of India in addition to philosophical works, was for 17 years a member of the East India House, and for the last six of these, chief examiner.
Mill's mother was the daughter of a widow who managed a lunatic asylum, started by her husband. James Mill seemed to have looked down upon his wife. 2. Development Wade 17 1. Interests John Stuart Mill had no childhood.
His interests and his activities were mature from the first. In his early years, he was not allowed to associate with children of his own age. Because his attention was directed exclusively to abstractions, he was inattentive and unobservant in matters of daily life. Brought up an agnostic and a questioner, his one in concern was always the search for fundamental truth. At 15, on reading the works of Bentham, Mill reached a turning point in his intellectual life.
The rational materialist became, at that time, an outspoken champion of democracy and a determined reformer of existing world conditions. 2. Indication Until he was 14, Mill was educated at home by his father. He began to learn Greek at three, and from then to his ninth year he studied Greek classics, making daily reports of his reading. At the same time, under his father's direction, he read innumerable historical works.
At seven he read Plato. At eight he began the study of Latin. Before the end of the year he was busily reading the classical Latin writers. He did not neglect mathematics. At eight his course included geometry and algebra.
At nine Koenig sections, Spherix and Newton's Arithmetic were added. In the latter, he performed all the problems without the book, and most of them without any help from the book. At ten and eleven, both mathematical and classical studies were continued. Astronomy and mechanical philosophy were also included. Inflections began at eleven.
Mill was slightly self-taught. One part of his course, the writing of English verse, he heartily disliked. At the age of 12, philosophy and logic, including argumentation, became important parts of the program. Daily debate with his father, who taught him above all things to accept no opinion unchallenged, was a most stimulating exercise. At 13, a complete course in political economy was undertaken with intensive supplementary reading.
Young Mill attended also a course of lectures on chemistry at the Royal Military College. In spite of the wide variety of subjects, and the early age at which he started to study them, Mill's education was not one of cram. Complete understanding was made to proceed, or at least to accompany every forward step. Self-conceit of a sort was guarded against, for the boy never heard himself praised. Moreover, he had one with whom to compare himself except his father, and this comparison was always humbling to his own pretensions.
His father's frequent request for the definition of words he used accentuated young mills' sense of ignorance. At 14, John visited France as a guest of General Sir Samuel Bentham, and there spent his days in study, reading, driving, sightseeing, swimming, in learning to sing, dance, fence and ride, and occasionally in collecting plants and insects. The plan of study was both intensive and extensive,
including, as it did, continuation of the studies already begun, as well as vast amounts of reading, especially in French literature. Nine hours were daily devoted to hard intellectual labour, requiring intensive application. On the recommendation of the Benthams and of a distinguished French chemist, Mill was allowed to remain in France through the winter to attend lectures at Montpellier University.
These included chemistry, zoology, metaphysics and logic. Mathematics had continued under a private tutor. The most important result of Mill's study in France was the sympathetic acquaintance which he gained there with French modes of thought and action. The following years, his 16th and 17th, were spent at home in the study of philosophy, history, psychology and literary composition. At 16, Mill began the study of law with John Austen.
3. School Standing and Progress, C. 2. 2 4. Friends and Associates Until Mill was 14, his associates were the members of his family, chiefly his father and his father's friends. He was treated as an intellectual equal by men of high ability and attainment,
even in his early years. In France, he was associated with the distinguished family of General Bentham and their friends. On his return, he was much with Grote and John Austen, both of whom influenced him profoundly. At 16, Mill became acquainted with Charles Austen,
the first real friend who was almost a contemporary. On a visit to Cambridge at 16, Mill made an unusual impression upon a number of undergraduates by his great conversational power, although the students he met were acquainted with Macaulay and Austen. 5. Reading Mill read Greek and history from his fourth year onward, Plato at 7, Thucydides, Anacreon, Sophocles, Eurypides, Demosthenes, Aristophanes, and Cicero at 8, Theodicy, Theocritus, Pindar, Aeschines, and Livy at 9. and progressively more difficult classical writers from 10 onward.
Kiel's astronomy and Roberts' mechanical philosophy, his special delight, universal history and English literature, especially Shakespeare, Dryden and Scott. Scientific treatises in chemistry and physics were special favourites. At 14, the French writers made up a large share of the reading programme. At 15 and 16, the works of Condillac, Dumont, Bentham, Blackstone, Locke, Helvidius
and the Scottish philosophers were added. also a history of the French Revolution and an analysis of the influence of natural religion. The careful study to which many of these books were subjected is indicated by close, marginal notes. 6. Production and Achievement A history of Rome written at six and a half is an extraordinary production for so young a lad.
Letters written at age show an excellent style and precocious interests. A synoptic table of Aristotle's rhetoric was made by Millard XI, and during the same year he prepared a number of histories, verses and metrical translations. Before he was 12, he had begun to assist his father in correcting the proof of the history of India. From 12 to 14, he prepared notes from his father's discourses to him during their walks together
and these became the basis for James Mill's Elements of Political Economy. At 13 and 14, John made complete analysis of some of the orations of Demosthenes. At 15 and 16, he instructed his younger brother and sisters in the subjects his father had taught him. At 16, he wrote his first argumentative essay, and this was followed by a number of others on various topics. Two letters in defence of his father's economic views were printed before their author was 17.
In The Traveller, a newspaper owned by an opponent and edited by a friend of James Mill. With the support of a group of young men of ability and independent thought, Young Mill organised, before he was 18, the Utilitarian Society. He was even then the leader of the group, and from that time he had a considerable influence on their mental progress. 7. Evidences of Prococity
C. 2, 2, and 5 At the age of five, Mill discussed the comparative merits of Marlborough and Wellington with Lady Spencer, the wife of the First Lord of the Admiralty. The boy's distinctive ability was early recognised by critical observers, and writing of him at 14, his father's friend Bain sums up his achievement as follows. If I were to compare him with the most intellectual youth that I have ever known, or heard or read of, I should say that his attainments on the whole are not unparalleled, though I admit very rare. His classical knowledge, such as it is, might be forced upon a clever youth of that age. The mathematics could not be so easily commanded.
But the one thing in my judgement, where Emile was most markedly in advance of his use, was logic. It was not merely that he had read treatises on the former logic, as well as Rob's Computatio Civlogica, but that he was able to chop logic with his father in regard to the foundations and demonstrations of geometry. I have never known a similar case of leucocity. We must remember, however, that while his father could not be expected to teach him everything,
yet in point of fact there were a few things that he could and did teach effectively. One of these was logic. The others were political economy, historical philosophy and politics, all of which were eminently his own subjects. On these, John was a truly precarious youth.
His innate aptitudes, which must have been great, received the utmost stimulation that it was possible to apply. AI IQ 190 Relative Cosure Data 0.82 3. Development from 17 to 26 At 17, Mill entered the service of the East India Company, with whom he remained until he was 52.
During his first year of service, he made many journalistic contributions, and the following year, he wrote for the newly founded Westminster Review. His articles being chiefly book reviews on history, politics or political economy, or discussions on special political topics. His friendship with Roy Buck began at this time.
At night he commenced editing Bentham's work on evidence and enormous labour, entertaining not only selection and revision of the author's material, but the addition of suitable supplementary discussions from other writers. In this year Mills started the Parliamentary History and Review, Untended Debates and Readings,
the latter field of activity covering the works of his father, Ricardo and Hobbes. In the following year he continued his debates and readings, and his book reviews for the Westminster. At this time, the first signs appeared of an approaching mental crisis. He fell into a state of nervous depression during which he felt that his tasks were carried on quite mechanically.
At 20, his outward life followed the same course. Debates, reviews, readings and discussions. The subject logic. At 22, appeared his last article for the Westminster, one on Scott's life of Napoleon. He was promoted assistant examiner at the East India Company,
and he commenced his friendship with Mortis and Sterling. During the next year, the subject of the discussions was the analysis of the human mind. At 24, excited by the revolution, Mill visited Paris and there became acquainted with the French philosophy of history. When he returned to England, he prepared a series of articles on French politics which soon appeared in various reviews. He began to outline his ideas on the logical distinction between terms, a study which developed in the next year, Mill's 26,
to logical axioms and a theory of syllogisms. He continued his articles on the spirit of the age and published them in the Examiner. In this year, he first met his future wife. It is noteworthy that Mill did not read Wordsworth until his 22nd year, and that he was then surprised to find that the poet belonged to him as well as to others.
AI IQ 170, Relative Culture Data, Point Two. End of section 36.
